Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Nearly 100 students marched from Pittsburgh's Creative and Performing Arts High School to City Hall today, demanding an indepth investigation into a January 12 confrontation between 3 undercover Pittsburgh police officers and 18 year-old student Jordan Miles. Miles alleges the police jumped out of an SUV and beat him as he was walking from his mother's house to his grandmother's in Homewood. Pictures taken by his mother Terez Miles show his face covered with bruises and his right eye swollen shut. Damarra Underwood, CAPA senior class president says this is a mark on the city's police officers and they're demanding justice. Terez is calling for the officers to be fired. She says she belives the three white officers targeted her son because he is black. Police say that Miles appeared to be armed but that a bulky object in his pocket turned out to be a soda bottle. He was charged with aggravated assault and resisting arrest, but the officers did not show for a court hearing and the matter was postponed. The city is investigating the incident.